


The Princess and the Dragon

by PinkRangerV



Category: Original Work
Genre: Magic, Princes & Princesses, Princesses and Dragons, Rewriting Toxic Myths, Shapeshifters - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-02
Updated: 2014-02-02
Packaged: 2018-01-10 20:55:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,278
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1164422
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PinkRangerV/pseuds/PinkRangerV
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dragons don't just hatch from eggs.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Princess and the Dragon

**Author's Note:**

> Dragons are, mythologically speaking, representations of the 'evil' feminine, which is why they could communicate with anyone, breathe fire, valued treasure and art, and 'ate' princesses.
> 
> Tumblr noticed. I made a fic.

Show me fantasy.

 

Show me a land where the impossible is all too real; where stylized truth isn’t stylized at all. Show me the landscape of Earth; now show me how, with more than one sentient species, they co-evolve and affect each other. Show me magic. Violate physics; write new law upon new law, and show me a world where your own mind can affect this reality.

 

Show me a world where witches ride not just brooms but have invented something quite close to airplanes long before anyone else thought of it. Show me a world where elves are the spirits of the land, and _not_ to be offended. Show me a world where spirits can return. Show me a world where dragons eat princesses and princes save them; where shining armor is to distract the dragon for crucial seconds in the hope that a few more limbs might remain.

 

Show me a world where things are _different_.

 

Show me, storyteller, the world of Princess Anwen of Wales. Show me the beautiful summer’s day, where she went out for a breath of fresh air. Show me the clear blue sky and growing land around her; the rare warm day.

 

Show me the dragon swooping down to take her in her claws. Let me hear her cry as she was carried away.

 

Show me not the father and brother hurriedly asking her betrothed for help; don’t tell me about the Scottish lad already gearing up in the British plate armor designed to defy flames. Show no proclamations or world beyond the dragon’s cave.

 

Show me the story now.

 

***

 

Anwen hid in a corner. It wasn’t princesslike, but it was the only thing she could think to do. The mighty dragon stretched out like a cat, purring and licking its claws, and Anwen tried to avoid its notice. They ate princesses, everyone knew that. Maybe if she stayed still and quiet the dragon would overlook her.

 

The dragon yawned greatly and settled down. It didn’t move for quite a while.

 

It was sleeping, Anwen realized. She could escape. She got up and started tiptoeing around the dragon.

 

She stopped short at the cave opening.

 

“Well?” A deep, female voice rumbled after a minute.

 

“I’m sorry?” Anwen responded almost automatically, turning to face the dragon.

 

It wasn’t sleeping. It stared at Anwen with no expression Anwen could recognize. “What will you do now?”

 

Anwen turned again. They were in a cave high on a mountaintop, with scree for quite a long ways below and the sun setting. She considered. “Are you going to eat me?”

 

“I might.”

 

Anwen nodded slowly, then turned and began climbing down.

 

Scree was slippery and difficult. Anwen’s dress did her no good whatsoever, either, getting under her feet and making every move harder. She made it halfway down before the dragon launched out of its cave, swooped around, grabbed Anwen by the shoulders, and carried her up to the cave again.

 

Anwen landed rather gracefully this time, falling into a crouch and standing. “Is this some sort of game?” She demanded.

 

“No.” The dragon said. “If you leave, you will die before you find anyone.”

 

Anwen glared. “My betrothed is already looking for me. Edward of Scotland is--”

 

“Do you want him to find you?”

 

Anwen blinked. “Of course I do. What sort of question is _that_?”

 

The dragon relaxed again, this time facing Anwen. “And if I told you I would _not_ eat you?”

 

Anwen hesitated.

 

“There is a bed there.” The dragon pointed with a claw.

 

“...Thank you.”

 

***

 

Anwen woke the next morning to see the dragon gone. She went to the cave entrance, hoping to make a start on the scree.

 

The dragon was in flight.

 

It wheeled above in lazy circles, as if greeting the dawn. The sun rose in the mountains below it, setting the world on fire, and the dragon finally landed on the mountain and let out a songlike cry. Anwen had always wondered what made that cry.

 

The dragon flew down to the scree and landed, its shoulders just level with Anwen. “Come on.”

 

Anwen cast hesitation to the wind and scrambled onto the dragon’s back.

 

The dragon launched into the air, making Anwen gasp and shut her eyes. When she opened them, though, she was _flying_ ; the world beneath her was alive with light and the sun was lighting the lower sky.

 

The dragon swept down and snatched a buck from the ground. There was a horrible snapping sound, and then the buck went still.

 

Anwen gaped.

 

The dragon tossed the buck to the ground, then landed. It reached out with a tip and slit the deer’s throat, then hefted the deer up. Blood gushed from it, and the dragon wedged the deer in a tree. “Do you know what obsidian is?” The dragon rumbled.

 

“No….ah…”

 

“Arwel.” The dragon introduced its--no, _her_ self. “It is black glass. Here.” The dragon pointed at a stone. “That is a shard. Find one, and I will teach you to make a hand axe.”

 

Anwen hesitated, then slid down. “I’m Anwen.”

 

“A pleasure.”

 

***

 

Anwen grew to prefer furs to dresses. They were simpler for riding, for learning the many ways of the sky and earth.

 

She learned to slaughter and butcher animals. Learned to hunt. Learned herbs, meant for healing, for dragons at least. Arwel took her to meet a witch; to meet a tribe of elves; to a deep, secret cave where the stone itself glowed.

 

Anwen learned to read the scrolls and books that were hidden carefully in the cave. She organized them by subject matter and author, and studied wisdom the world had long ago rejected. Most of the books had been burned, Arwel explained. It was safer to keep records here. Someday they would be needed again.

 

Weeks passed, and Anwen almost forgot she was a princess until Edward rode up again.

 

***

 

“I shot him.”

 

“He struck you.” Arwel pointed out calmly.

 

“That’s no reason to take a life!” Anwen shouted, flinging her bow aside. Edward’s corpse lay dead on the ground.

 

Anwen stopped glaring after a minute. She looked at the corpse. Then she picked up her bow and went into the cave.

 

Arwel followed.

 

The mighty claw set a gemstone in front of Anwen. Anwen studied it.

 

“Royalty is always imbued with magic. How you use it is up to you.” Arwel said. “That gemstone will help you take whatever form you please.”

 

Anwen set it aside. “I’m not avoiding this.” She caught sight of a scar on her palm and studied it for a minute. “If I went back...I’d be married off, wouldn’t I.”

 

“Yes.”

 

Anwen had nothing against marriage...but the idea of total obedience to a husband didn’t sound very good. She wanted more than that.

 

“Can I stay here?”

 

“Always.”

 

***

 

One night Anwen reached for the gemstone and pressed it to her heart. She felt her body warping, her shape changing.

 

She took a while to totter around on unsteady legs, to consider her new position as a baby dragon. Dragons always started off young--men and women who had the power of change and knowledge.

 

Princesses, born of royalty and confined to looking beautiful, were a natural place to seek out younglings.

 

Someday Anwen would seek out a daughter of her own, someone to pass on her own treasure trove to. Someday Anwen would take a small, sweet boy and leave him at the house of a witch who could raise him. Someday…

 

Today, the sun was about to rise. Anwen leapt off the scree and into the sky to greet the sun. Her mother was waiting.


End file.
